Study on pasture management issues and their causality in the Republic of Armenia 2019 Study on pasture management issues and their causality in the Republic of Armenia (Translation) April 30, 2019 This study was carried out by agriculture and rural development expert Viktorya Ayvazyan for the “Project Coordination Platform for Sustainable Management of RA Natural Grazing Lands – Pastures and Grasslands” and for the development of a Concept Paper on Sustainable Pasture Management in the Republic of Armenia. The study was performed with the support of “Livestock Development in the South of Armenia” project, which is being implemented by “Strategic Development Agency” NGO with the funding of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Table of contents List of tables ........................................................................................................................................... 2 List of figures .......................................................................................................................................... 3 List of acronyms ..................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Executive summary ........................................................................................................................ 5 2. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1. Background and reasons of the study ................................................................................... 7 2.2. Objective and goals of the study ........................................................................................... 8 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 10 4. The role of natural grazing lands – pastures and grasslands ...................................................... 15 4.1. Natural grazing lands ........................................................................................................... 15 4.2. The significance of natural grazing lands for the Armenian economy ............................. 19 4.3. Environmental significance of natural grazing lands......................................................... 27 4.4. Impact of anthropogenic factors and climate change on environmental-economic conditions of natural grazing lands ................................................................................................. 29 5. Pasture management .................................................................................................................... 34 5.1. Main approaches to pasture use and issues ......................................................................... 34 5.2. Current conditions and issues of pasture management ..................................................... 45 6. Current state policies and legislative framework for pasture management .............................. 59 6.1. Public policy and programs ................................................................................................. 59 6.2. Pature management legislation and regulations ................................................................ 61 6.3. Sectoral projects implemented by stakeholder organizations ........................................... 64 7. Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................................ 68 7.1. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 68 7.2. Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 72 References ............................................................................................................................................ 74 Annexes ................................................................................................................................................ 77 Annex 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 77 Annex 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 78 1 List of tables Table 1: Settlements and the number of representatives of target groups that participated in focus- group discussions, by Marzes ............................................................................................................... 11 Table 2: The RA land fund and distribution of pastures and grasslands by ownership, 2018 ............ 15 Table 3: Gross agricultural product, bln. AMD ................................................................................... 20 Table 4: Number of some types of cattle in household farms ............................................................. 21 Table 5: Number of some types of cattle in household farms ............................................................. 21 Table 6: Change of livestock quantities for the period of 1985-2018, by the end of year, 1000 heads .............................................................................................................................................................. 23 Table 7: Import of products to Armenia used for feeding animals, tones ........................................... 25 Table 8: Presence of some types of feed for animals for the period of 1985-2017 (per provisionally 1 LC) ........................................................................................................................................................ 27 Table 9: Prices for main animal feed types, dram/kg........................................................................... 27 Table 10: Professional backstopping provided by the LSGs to the pasture using farms ..................... 36 Table 11: Assessment of accessibility and useability of distant and adjacent pastures, according to the communities ................................................................................................................................... 41 Table 12: Assessment of the surveyed communities per presence or absence of needs for knowledge and information on certain topics related to pastures and animal husbandry.................................... 44 Table 13: Share of revenues from and expenditure on pastures in the revenue and expenditure articles of the Armenian communities, 2018 ....................................................................................... 49 Table 14: Communities selected for the online survey ....................................................................... 77 Table 15: Community groups of focus-group discussions ................................................................... 77 Table 16: List of participants in expert interviews .............................................................................. 79 2 List of figures Figure 1: Involvement of communities in the study, by regions, by factually existing and rentable pasturelands (by 01.01.2018) ................................................................................................................ 13 Figure 2: Ratio of existing and rentable pastures (by 01.01.2018)....................................................... 14 Figure 3: Distribution of pastures and grasslands in the RA Marzes, 2018 ......................................... 16 Figure 4: Landscape zones in the Republic of Armenia ...................................................................... 17 Figure 5: Annual pasture use scheme in Armenia ............................................................................... 18 Figure 6: Distribution of cattle by regions, January 2019, NSC .......................................................... 23 Figure 7: Change in the quantity of agricultural animals that graze on pastures compared to the previous years, % .................................................................................................................................. 24 Figure 8: Change in the quantity of cows and volume of milk in 2008-2017, in % comparison to the previous years ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 9: Production of fodder crops in the territory of Armenia in the period of 1985-2017, 1000t .............................................................................................................................................................. 26 Figure 10: Conditions of adjacent and distant pastures, according the respondents, in communities that participated in the survey ............................................................................................................. 30 Figure 11: Changes in adjacent and distant pastures for the last 10-20 years, according to the representatives of the communities ..................................................................................................... 31 Figure 12: Implementation of works on restoration or improvement of pastures or their infrastructure in the surveyed communities ....................................................................................... 33 Figure 13: Pasture use control by the LSG bodies